Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (The Blue Mansion): The most atmospheric Chinese hotel that isn't in China

I wish I'd brought my opium pipe and eunuch with me. Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion isn't really that old, but it feels invested with a thousand years of history and feng-shui lore. It evokes all kinds of fantasies of secret societies, caged songbirds and concubines. (The quarter beyond the compound did indeed once housed decommissioned concubines, and is now occupied by a row of spice-reeking street eateries.) Fashion magazines shoot models here in cheongsams and chopsticks.

On a continent in which hotels often either still smell of drying paint or feature European colonial decor, this indigo-coloured mansion is a wonderful anomaly. Even more so since it has no spa, no room service and no airconditioning in public areas, which feature a series of open courtyards. It was built as a private mansion by Chinese politico, imperial economic advisor and self-made "Rockefeller of the East" Cheong Fatt Tze, who was obsessed with both traditional feng shui and quality work.

This architectural beauty lingered on in the family, getting increasingly dishevelled, until 1989 when a conservancy group took over and the mansion eventually re-emerged as a boutique hotel, bagging all kinds of renovation-rescue awards in the process.

To its credit, the hotel runs guided tours three times daily so that non-residents can see this blue architectural gem and learn about its remarkable owner. Two rooms are set aside as a mini-museum displaying Cheong family memorabilia, including shimmering silk cheongsams owned by Cheong's diminutive young seventh wife, who considered this house her favourite.

The Blue Mansion, as it's nicknamed, is a marvel of tranquil courtyards, Chinese carved screens and porcelain, and is one of the best-preserved such mansions outside China. This being Malaysia, though, other influences subtly intrude, such as art deco stained glass, English floor tiles and Scottish cast-iron balustrades. Plaster arabesques on the ceiling are an idea import from British India.

The mansion's restaurant, Indigo, has a smart contemporary interior and east-west fusion dishes. Even if you don't stay, go for dinner. Penang-raised chef Beh Weng Chia has worked in Australia, Japan and America and really knows what he's doing. The seafood is terrific: grilled prawn and squid salad, grouper with torched octopus, Hokkaido scallops with squid-ink capellini pasta. The spiced, honey-glazed duck with taro puree and orange-hoisin sauce will make you lick your knife. Desserts use local ingredients such as mango, jasmine and jackfruit in western classics such as crumbles and panna cottas.

Breakfast in the main courtyard is an altogether more laidback affair. Fans stir Penang's humidity and potted plants droop. If a tropical shower develops, water gurgles down drainpipes and along stone channels in the flagstone courtyard, bringing instant coolness. You can see the rise in the floor supposed to "ride the dragon's back" according to feng-shui principles.